Josiah Bartlet
President Josiah Edward “Jed” Bartlet, Ph.D., D.H.L. (Hon.), serves as President of the United States from 1999 to 2007. He is a successful politician, having never lost an election and winning a second term as President in a landslide. His career in politics spans 36 years, from 1971 to 2007. Sometime in 1991, Bartlet is diagnosed with relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis; he hides it during his first presidential campaign for all but a handful of people until, in his 2001 reelection run, he finally makes it public. Biography Josiah Edward Bartlet, known to people close to him as “Jed”, was born in the early 1940s in New Hampshire, the elder of two sons. His great-great-great-great-grandfather was Dr. Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence “My great grandfather’s great-grandfather was Dr. Josiah Bartlett, who was the New Hampshire delegate to the Second Continental Congress”, from “What Kind of Day Has It Been?”. While his father was Protestant, his mother was a devout Roman Catholic; he was brought up a Catholic and remained so for the rest of his life. As a child, his brother Jon locked him in a steamer trunk “Yes. I remember being locked in a steamer trunk. There were actual steamers in there with me, Charlie. I was in there with seafood”, from “Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail”. Education He walked every morning from his house to his school, a short distance away, with a fresh hanky in his pocket and a spring in his step “I walked to school every morning in weather colder than this”, from “Inauguration: Over There (Part II)”. His father was the headmaster of a prestigious preparatory school. Dr. Bartlet used his headmaster positoin to allow his son to enter the school “You’re at the school because I’m the headmaster”, from “Two Cathedrals”. While attending it in 1960, he got in trouble with his father for a stunt he pulled on Loomis, the school’s Literature professor, co-writing with a group of friends an article condemning him for banning books such as “Fahrenheit 451,” and works by D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller. This was one of the many times Bartlet’s father slapped him From a scene in “Two Cathedrals”; their relationship would always be strained (or, as he later described it, "complicated"). Bartlet scored 1590 (ten points shy of a perfect 1600) on his SAT, retook the test, and again received 1590 “I got 800/790. For the life of me I can’t imagine what I got wrong. Then I took them again, and got 800/790. I mean, is it possible there was some sort of number-two pencil anomaly that could’ve...?”, from “Holy Night”; many, including Leo and Stanley Keyworth, thought it strange that he took the test again after receiving a near-perfect score. After high school, Bartlet was accepted to Harvard University, Yale University, Williams College and the University of Notre Dame; he decided on the latter as he was considering entering the clergy “You were accepted at Harvard, Yale, and Williams”, from “The Portland Trip” According to Abbey, Bartlet speaks four languages (presumably including Latin and German); none of them, however, is French “The Indians in the Lobby”. University of Notre Dame Bartlet did his undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame Bartlet is seen wearing a Notre Dame sweatshirt in “Five Votes Down”. His consideration of becoming a priest ended when he met his future wife Abigail, and changed his studies From a conversation with C.J. Cregg in “The Portland Trip”. Notre Dame, however, would have been an all-men school at the time; thus it is likely she attended Saint Mary's College, the sister institution across the street. Bartlet might have attempted to play baseball, but Toby Ziegler and Charlie Young noted years later he was a bad pitcher From a conversation in “Memorial Day”, paraphrasing that the Notre Dame Athletic department would agree to make him wear a special pitching vest, instead of attempting pitching by himself., and “hated America's pastime”. He graduated summa cum laude from Notre Dame with a degree in American Studies, and minored in Theology “For the record, the President graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a major in American Studies and a minor in theology”, from “The U.S. Poet Laureate”. London School of Economics After Notre Dame, Bartlet was accepted to the prestigious London School of Economics According to Stanley Keyworth in “Night Five”. When he was 26 years old, he wrote a paper supporting the deregulation of Far East trade barriers that created an uproar in his school, and he was “nearly thrown out” “When I was 26, I wrote a paper supporting the deregulation of Far East trade barriers. Nearly got thrown out of the London School of Economics. I was young and stupid, and trying to make some noise”, from “The Short List”. Regardless, he would go on to receive an MSc and eventually a doctorate from the school “He received a Masters and a Doctorate at the London School of Economics”, from “The U.S. Poet Laureate”. Economics Career Bartlet became a tenured economics professor “I am an economics professor...”, from “The Crackpots and These Women” at Dartmouth University, another major goal in his life According to Stanley Keyworth in “Night Five”. While at Dartmouth he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters “...a Doctorate at the London School of Economics and an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Dartmouth University where he was a tenured professor”, from “The U.S. Poet Laureate”. As a professor and researcher, Bartlet became world-famous, eventually winning the Nobel Prize in Economics “Jed Bartlet, Nobel Laureate in Economics...”, from “Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc”; he actually “tied” for that year with another economist from Japan, which always annoyed him. He also wrote the book Theory and Design of Macroeconomics in Developing Nations (which, judging from Toby Ziegler's reaction to the President’s less-than-serious suggestion to talk about it on live television, wasn’t a major page-turner) According to Josh Lyman in “The U.S. Poet Laureate”. :It is likely he won the Nobel Prize while he was a politician, as he references his daughter Ellie being in third grade at the time of his award (presumably the late 1970s), and he entered politics presumably in the early 1970s. Political Career By 1971, Josiah Bartlet had been elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives “28 years ago, I come home from a very bad day at the State House”, from “Pilot”, where he started his political career and learned its basics “What about state legislature? It's the place to learn. The President started there...”, from Abu el Banat. He served in the House, not the US Senate, and so is unaware of Senate rules. “The Stackhouse Filibuster”. Bartlet ran against Republican Elliot Roush for United States House of Representatives and won “I don't know who Elliot Roush is... I beat him in my first Congressional campaign”, from “The Midterms”, but seemed to harbor resentment towards Roush due to a perceived tendency to twist Scriptural teachings in order to support bigoted beliefs. Bartlet would go on to serve three terms in the House “Jed Bartlet, Nobel Laureate in Economics, three-term congressman...”, from “Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc”. MS Diagnosis Sometime in the early 1990s, over a time of several months, Bartlet started to feel unwell and had a pain in his right leg, both of which eventually went away. However, the pain came back with numbness about two years later; he’d also feel dizzy and his vision blurred sometimes. An ophthalmologist detected abnormal pupil responses an ordered an MRI; a radiologist discovered plaques on his spine and brain, leading the doctors and Bartlet himself to learn that he had a relapsing-remitting course of Multiple Sclerosis, a chronic disease of the central nervous system. Prior to the series’ start, only a little over a dozen people knew, including himself as well as Abbey, their three daughters, his brother, the Vice-President, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and other doctors. Bartlet kept the diagnosis concealed from the rest of the world. Governor of New Hampshire Bartlet served two terms as Governor of New Hampshire “...three-term congressman, two-term Governor”, from “Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc”, from 1991 to 1995, and then from 1995 to 1999 “I remember a time in the Governor's mansion. It was about ten years ago...”, from “In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I”. As Governor, Bartlet was very popular with the people of New Hampshire and won his second term with 69% of the vote, a very impressive margin for a Democrat in the Libertarian Conservative-leaning state “I was saying, what I don’t understand is you guys were such fans of the President, you loved him when he was governor”, from “Hartsfield's Landing”; so popular in fact that, when he later decided to run for President of the United States, his staff urged him to all but ignore the New Hampshire primary, as he had no chance of losing it. Governor Bartlet was for strict state seatbelt laws but failed to act on it, which wasted time in the state legislature “And I was for it then. Never did anything about it because nobody wanted it”, from “The Women of Qumar”. Bartlet also signed into state law the Historic Barn and Bridges Preservation Act, which he later regretted when it interfered with plans for his Presidential Library—it provided that certain barns, bridges, and other buildings over a century old were to be preserved “What plaid flannel-wearing, cheese eating, yahoo of a milkman governor signed that idiot bill into state law?... It was me, wasn’t it?”, from “Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail”. As Governor, Bartlet had to deal with several state lawsuits “Have I ‘ever been party to a lawsuit’? I was governor of New Hampshire! Anybody who...”, from “Bad Moon Rising”. One of his primary concerns as Governor was tourism; during his terms, he somewhat reluctantly approved the use of the slogan “New Hampshire, It’s what’s new” and increases in snowmobile and "fall foliage" tourism From a scene in “Bartlet for America”. He appointed Robert Nolan to the New Hampshire State Medical Board, possibly because he was a colleague of his wife “Yeah, they worked together for 20 years, and I was the governor who appointed him to the Board”, from “Dead Irish Writers”. President of the United States :See United States presidential election, 1998, the Bartlet Administration and “Bartlet for America (1998)” for more information. It was at the end of his governorship that Bartlet’s good friend Leo McGarry suggested a run for the Presidency. Following the concession by one-time frontrunner Senator John Hoynes, Bartlet offered him the position of running mate. He won the 1998 election with 303 electoral votes to 228 electoral, but only a plurality of the popular vote. As President-Elect, Bartlet was angered that the outgoing Republican President seemed to stick him with military conflict in the Philippines; he remarked that he’d have to remember to “fire Fitzwallace”, but this never came to pass. Bartlet was inaugurated as President of the United States on January 20th, 1999. His administration was a relative success in his first term. In May 2000, an attempt was made on the president's life while coming out of a town hall meeting in Rosslyn, Virginia; it was later revealed that he wasn’t the original target, and made a full recovery. In the spring of 2001, Bartlet disclosed that he suffered from a relapsing-remitting course of Multiple Sclerosis, which threatened his chances for reelection in 2002; still, he announced he’d seek a second term against his Republican opponent Robert Ritchie. After clearly coming on top in a presidential debate, he won reelection in a landslide victory. Bartlet’s second term began on January 20th, 2003. In May 2003, Vice-President Hoynes resigned in the wake of a sex scandal. Later that same month, Bartlet's youngest daughter Zoey was kidnapped. Feeling that he couldn't perform his duties objectively while worrying about his daughter, he invoked the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, temporarily handing over presidential powers to the next in line of succession; as the administration had no vice president at the time, Republican Speaker of the House Glen Allen Walken was sworn in as Acting President. Zoey was eventually rescued, and Bartlet resumed power three days later. In December 2005, while traveling aboard Air Force One to a summit in China, Bartlet was left working from a wheelchair after a major MS episode. He gradually regained feeling but was relegated to walking with a cane. When President-Elect Matthew Santos was inaugurated on January 20th, 2007, Bartlet returned to his farm just outside Manchester, New Hampshire to enjoy life in retirement. The Josiah Bartlet Presidential Library was opened at the beginning of 2010 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Religion Jed Bartlet’s mother was a Roman Catholic, his father a religious Protestant; due to the poor relationship with him, Jed chose to follow the faith of his loving mother. To this day, Bartlet remains a devout Roman Catholic, attending church every Sunday. Resume Education *Phillips Exeter Academy (1956-1960) * B.A. in American Studies (minor in Theology) - University of Notre Dame (graduated summa cum laude) (1960-1964) * Masters Degree - London School of Economics (1964-1966) * Ph.D. - London School of Economics (1966-1970) * Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters - Dartmouth University (1998) Career * Professor of Economics at Dartmouth University * 1985: Nobel Laureate in Economics * Author: Theory and Design of Macroeconomics in Developing Nations Politics * 1971 - 1981: Member of the N.H. House of Representatives from Hillsborough's 44th district * 1981 - 1989: Member of the New Hampshire State Board of Education (At-large district) * 1989 - 1995: Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire's 1st district * 1995 - 1999: Governor of New Hampshire * 1999 - 2007: President of the United States of America Trivia “Jed” Bartlet was played by Martin Sheen and represents, in many ways, an “ideal liberal president” endowed with a fierce intellect, great if not infallible personal integrity and toughness, and tempered with essential compassion for the less fortunate and a sense of humor. He wasn’t originally meant to be a key member of what was an ensemble cast, only to make occasional appearances, but he became the series’ main character. Alan Alda (who would play Senator Arnold Vinick), George C. Scott (the star of Patton) and Sidney Poitier were also considered for the role. The MS scandal is based on Bill Clinton’s impeachment, with whom Bartlet shares several traits. He also has similarities to John F. Kennedy; like him, Bartlet is a New England Democrat that defeated a far more qualified competitor for the Democratic nomination who was a U.S. Senator from Texas and became Senate Democratic floor leader in a short period of time—in Kennedy’s case this was Lyndon Johnson; in Bartlet’s, John Hoynes. Like Kennedy, he hid a serious illness during the presidential campaign that could have prevented him from winning the Democratic primary. Also like Kennedy, after winning the nomination he had to beg his former rival to accept the Vice-Presidency to secure support from the South and win the general election. People Who Knew This is the list of people who originally knew Bartlet has MS prior to the start of the series, including himself. * Abigail Bartlet * Elizabeth Bartlet * Ellie Bartlet * Zoey Bartlet * Six Original Doctors and Radiologists * Jonathan Bartlet * Chairman Percy Fitzwallace * Vice President John Hoynes This is the list of people who were told of Bartlet’s condition throughout the series: * Leo McGarry * David Lee * Toby Ziegler * Oliver Babish * Charlie Young * Josh Lyman * C.J. Cregg * Joey Lucas * Kenny Thurman * Sam Seaborn * Donna Moss Notes and references Category:Main Characters Bartlet, Josiah Bartlet, Josiah Category:Representatives Bartlet, Josiah Category:Education Category:Doctors